Dumb question about a really common chord

Jonathangus

What do you actually call this?  I'm talking about the really common thing where you play a simple two-note root-and-fifth power chord, then drop the lower note by a semitone.  One Vision is the obvious example, but it crops up all over the place.  With only two notes, it's hard to define the root.

So something like: 4 7 x x x x - would you call that A/G#, or G#m6?  Or something else?

digitalkettle

With two notes (a diad), there's not enough context...BUT...what I think you're going for here is that 4-7-x-x-x-x to 5-7-x-x-x-x movement.

4-7-x-x-x-x = E/G# = 1st inversion of E, i.e. the 3rd is in the bass
5-7-x-x-x-x = A5

So bass motion aside, it's a V I progression.

bloodandtears

maj7 chord..  (inverted and missing the root note in the example you've shown)

imagine 576XXX

then replace the lowest root note with the maj7 octave below.

viz

Spot on, and if you wanted to fatten it out, you'd be playing a C-shaped barre chord on that 4th fret - ie 476454. As @digitalkettle ;says, E in 1st inversion, or E/G#.

digitalkettle

viz said:

Spot on, and if you wanted to fatten it out, you'd be playing a C-shaped barre chord on that 4th fret - ie 476454. As @digitalkettle ;says, E in 1st inversion, or E/G#.

I was just going to go on about fattening

I always noodled around on the 'One Vision' thing with an octave on top...and starting with a D5 chord:
x-5-7-7-x-x
x-4-7-6-x-x

And similar to @viz 's C-shape, for E/G# I like 4-x-2-4-5-x

Jonathangus

Lovely, thanks!  Yes, makes perfect sense when you try that full chord as @viz suggests.

Tannin

Well technically it is not a chord. Purists say that a chord is any combination of three or more notes. With only two, it's just a dyad.

But I think that view is being unnecessarily technical and unhelpful. So to answer we need a little more information, specifically we need the context. Where is it coming from and/or where is it going to?

HAL9000

A diad on its own doesn’t contain enough information to let the listener know what the underlying three (or more) note chord is. Context is everything.

Example - The Fabulous Thunderbirds song ‘My Babe’ starts with a double stop containing a D and an F. Seeing those two notes written down you’d be forgiven for thinking it might be a Dm or possibly a Bb. Hear it in context though and it’s immediately obvious that it’s a G7 even though the root and third are missing.

In the OP’s example - because the context is explained it’s fairly obvious that the second chord (the one with the bass note dropped by a semitone) will be a maj7. Without context it wouldn’t be obvious at all.